It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

Washington Journal Moderator Libby Casey: Who is Peter Ackerman, and how much money is he contributing?

Americans Elect Chief Operating Officer Elliot Ackerman: Um, Peter Ackerman is one of the individuals who, uh, came to this effort early on and, uh, he like many others provided the seed money to do this. And so Americans Elect basically represents an effort that is one sixtieth the size the amount of funding that people are going to spending in the two major parties for their campaigns.

What Elliot Ackerman didn’t say:

Peter Ackerman is Chairman and Director of Americans Elect.

Peter Ackerman is the major founder of Americans Elect.

Peter Ackerman is a billionaire wealth investor and corporate takeover specialist invested in a number of industries. Peter Ackerman is Elliot Ackerman’s father, which is how Elliot Ackerman obtained his current position.

Before Americans Elect stopped disclosing the sources of its funding, Peter Ackerman was the sole funder of Americans Elect, putting well over a million dollars into the corporate political effort.

Since September 30 2010, Americans Elect has refused to disclose how much money is being funneled into Americans Elect by its moneyed contributors, including Peter Ackerman.

Elliot Ackerman didn’t answer the question. No one at Americans Elect has answered the question.

Jim, you pulled one tiny sliver from a 40-minute interview to make your point. We already know that Americans Elect organized as a 501(c)4 so they don’t have to disclose their funders. You’re telling us the same thing over, over and over and not giving us any new information. I went in and found and watched the interview. There was a later segment when Elliot Ackerman was asked about his father Peter’s association with Michael Milken. The interviewer quoted a report that Peter Ackerman has contributed $1.55 million to AE.

Ackerman explained that the bulk of AE’s outlays are to fund 51 ballot access campaigns, a monumentally expensive undertaking. He also pointed out that AE’s funding is a tiny fraction of what Democrats and Republicans will be spending on their campaigns. It was a wide-ranging interview that I found rather interesting and informative. You usually give us the link to the sources you cite, but for some reason you didn’t provide a link to this interview. I will provide it below and encourage the readers to take a listen.

This is new information. It’s just not information that you’re interested in, which is your right — but you should understand that other people may find the information to be of use. The new information is the existence of another opportunity for Americans Elect to disclose its funding sources, and another refusal by Americans Elect to do so. The multiple instances of refusals to answer tell us amount to something more than a single instance.

The link is now included in the post; its absence was an oversight rather than intentional.

… and that later segment is another instance in which Elliot Ackerman didn’t answer the question. The interviewer pointed out the contributions Peter Ackerman made before Americans Elect went into no-disclosure mode in September of 2010 — and Elliot Ackerman refused yet again to disclose the identities of contributors or amounts of further contributions by Peter Ackerman, his dad and benefactor.

Again, we already know that Americans Elect organized as a 501(c)4 so they don’t have to disclose their funders. They obviously feel that if they had to identified, their sources for funding a nationwide ballot access campaign would dry up. So, your telling us that AE declined to talk specifics of their funding in a subsequent media interview gives us no new information. And again, I would encourage the readers to go watch the interview.

. . . And what’s your point about Elliot Ackerman’s “dad and benefactor?” After listening to him, I can see that Elliot would have plenty of opportunities on his own. He doesn’t have to depend on his father for his livelihood. Beside, he’s going to inherit his father’s money, anyway. That comment was gratuitous.

All this talk about Americans Elect money and backers is irrelevant. The bottom line will be the Americans Elect presidential and vice presidential candidates whose names appear on the ballot. Then, the voters will decide. The Americans Elect candidates are likely to appeal to independents, centrists, left-of-centers, disgusted Democrats and Republicans and former undecideds. Collectively these voters could constitute a power bloc — powerful enough to put a centrist president in the White House.

Wait a minute, “angloraven” – you’re actually saying that you don’t care if you don’t have a role in the selection of presidential candidate, and are okay if a presidential candidate is simply appointed for you?

How is that improving the political process?

How is it CENTRIST to have a bunch of corporate money purchasing a presidential candidacy for an insider? That seems pretty far outside the American center to me.

Let this be known to all who think they can dupe people, again, and again. The American working public, with jobs — hanging on and hoping to keep them, without jobs — because most the UBERS exported their opportunities, the unemployed who have seen thousands of their jobs exported and paid to those with lower wages in other countries, aren’t going to be duped! The Occupation has begun. It will continue. This is the voice of the majority. They are coming forth, and they are realizing what is happening to them. This Billionaire game by Peter Ackerman and his son Elliott Ackerman ( who is working for his billionaire dad and doesn’t have to worry about where his next meal is coming from), isn’t going to work. The people are finding out the truth, and they have finally been awakened by the Occupiers. Awareness. Justice. No more new “money changers” as James Madison used to call them. We don’t need a third party candidate for the sake of a third party — being toted as another choice — when the choice is just another poor one, backed by a Billionaire who made money in hedge funds. Oh, yes, we really need this money changer in the game. Please, two Mr. Ackermans, you will be found out, and you will hide who your backers really are. Our government may not be transparent, but the people are going to take back their government and make it transparent. And your hedge fund billionaire backing isn’t going to make the grade. You can bet on that. Americans are not going to be duped again. Change is in the air and it isn’t a Bought and paid for third party by a billionaire that is going to bring it. The people will bring the change. Their way.

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